ESPN influence

Watching ESPN gave me an idea. While the announcers do their thing a bar often appears at the bottom of the screen with additional information. Scores, injuries, lawsuits, steroid accusations etc. I am going to do the same thing on the BeatTheBossGame.com website.

I have created a futuristic city that serves as part of the loader in the game. Many flying objects have been added to the scene as well as buttons to YouTube commercials. After :30 seconds or so, a bar pops up with the game's first hint. This one tells you that there are different ways to approach the Boss. I will use this method to issue official Beat the Boss corporate communications. Next is trying to figure out how to program an iPhone to do an optical scan as an additional security measure.

I am spending a lot more time on the website than originally planned, but that's OK. The whole project reflects my artistic vision of corporate society. Having balloon boy fly by seemed like a good idea at the time. THEY loved the story airing it on all levels of communication.

Monetizing Mania

Digital media is a twin edged sword. It allows for unlimited creation, but it also allows the same freedom to other creators similar to yourself, there is a lot of competition out there. These days if you have an idea for a show you can make it and publish it all over the net, it's easy. This is a big win for people that have a project they want to get noticed. The problem is how do you make money? A chosen few are actually paid by YouTube for content, but the majority of folks are not in it for the money, they just want to share.

As a professional cartoonist I looked at 2010 back in 2005 and figured out something important. Everything in mobile is monetized. From the beginning mobile operators made sure that you pay for everything. Even if it's free you still pay for the service. I decided to follow the mobile path because people are willing to pay for communication. That is how I will monetize my mania.

My deal with mobile aggregators and phone companies left me a very small piece of the pie. I had two wallpapers surpass the 100,000 mark on T-Mobile. I would have made $70,000 each if that was an iPhone app. I made a fraction of that after agent fees and phone company splits. Apple takes 30% but offers a platform with over 50 million possible customers.

Though the app store is crowded, I still think it is a good place to be if you have a product worth buying. Being in the App store does not guarantee success, you have to promote. I am going to take advantage of all the methods available to shout these days. If the typical numbers happen 2-3% will buy. If I want to sell 100,000 apps I need to tell at least a few million folks.

Chia Obama

This has very little to do with my new app but it''s worth mentioning. This morning I saw a post on Facebook from my niece's husband Tony. He was floored by the fact that he saw a commercial for "Chia Obama". About 6 months ago I had pitched Chia to do an iPhone app. I had a virtual board meeting discussing the possibilities of taking their brand to the iPhone. The owner is not a young guy, he believes all the youngsters he hires who say "yes" so they can keep their jobs. He showed us Chia Obama. I almost hacked up a hair ball. Joe insisted that the African Americans he asked thought it was a great product. Hoogaduh! hoogaduh! (That is the sound of a cat coughing up that hair ball)

Who would buy this? If I walked into any one of my friend's house and saw that on the mantle I would fall out laughing...then leave. My friend's are smarter than that. I can see it on some racist liberal hating college student's toilet tank, that's about it. It is flat out a bad product. Walmart pulled it from the shelves, but amazingly they said yes to the original order in the first place.

Joe was excited about an upcoming TV interview to be filmed. It ended up a foot in mouth interview where he appeared to be a "Cracker". His minions were on vacation unable to help in damage control.

What we suggested was do a Chia app that demonstrates all their products. Virtual iPhone Chia's. Charge $1, then donate the money to charity to try and save face. They were concerned people would not buy real Chia's if they could get one on an iPhone. My question was, how many of your customer's own iPhones? The idea was to spread the word. Instead his bobble headed "Yes Men" helped him design a Chia Statue of Liberty. It looks absolutely ridiculous, the French are offended and want her back.

National Boss's Day

I was getting worried that the game will turn out to be glitchy. There is a lot of interaction. I tested the latest version today up to 8 weapons. It works. I think the game play is a success. You kind of almost throw the phone by swiping your thumbs. It gets kind of frantic. It does takes some skill to beat the clock, but the game does have addictive qualities. It is starting to get interesting, I hope the public likes it. Soon it will be time to start the marketing effort. Not quite yet, the app needs to be completed and submitted to the App Store first. Soon, YouTube and a T-Shirt contest. I am hoping to be able to promote the app for "National Boss's Day" October 16th.

Snow Leopard

I'm working on a Mac. Snow Leopard is the latest Apple software update. There are annoying glitches that are supposedly addressed and some new functionality. I draw using Adobe Illustrator. One hassle that I have always dealt with is not seeing a preview of those Illustrator files. Now, the icons show you a mini picture of the content of the file. Small thing but huge for me. I have been using Macs for 15 years. It has never been perfect, there is always a bug. It seems as though computing has moved into an era where the main focus is to take advantage of the processor and move packets of information effectively using the Intel Highway. I am really concerned about glitches in my program. People are getting used to things working well. If your game hangs up or crashes your audience will write bad reviews and vaporize.

MotoRokr S9-HD

Sound is also part of a an interactive experience. One of the worst things as a mobile designer is to watch someone hold a phone to their ear while playing a game. It takes their eye off the screen. I am hoping that the audio is understandable when the phone is a foot away from your face avoiding such activity. I just bought the Motorola Rokr S9-HD bluetooth stereo headphones to work with my iPhone. My goodness, the sound is way better than my old plug-in head set I wear while riding my road bike. When I get a call I can pick it up immediately rather than fumble for the phone. I just tested, if you wear the headset while playing the game you can hear the audio just fine. Bad news is I can't seem to get it to skip the the next song. I hope there is a fix.

Ideas vs.Programming

The hardest part about any project is waiting for it to bake. Creating a game takes logic as well as creativity. I am an artist not a programmer. It's kind of like Star Wars. In the mid-eighties digital effects geniuses and movie makers had to figure out how to get the results they wanted. Tron lead to Star Wars where the right and left brains met. On a small level I am in the same boat. I know what I want, but I need help getting there. Creating an interactive story requires teamwork. The programmers and I are not seeing the same picture at the moment. They promise I will be happy. We'll see. I have been studying to learn my craft. You have to know what the phone is capable of and what you want to create. My strength is character driven, I am specializing in more visual, tactile apps rather than technical.